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DIY Phone Case Customization

Introduction: DIY Phone Case Customization

I am a completely artsy person who loves to give everything a personal touch, and I am always afraid that I've made the wrong choice when getting phone cases, so I like to decorate them. This is basically how to decorate a phone case to suit your own style and taste, so you only need spend some money on the case and that's it until your case breaks.

(this is my first instructable don't judge)

Step 1: Materials

So for this, there's a few essential things to create the actual case insert:

• a piece of white cardstock or other construction paper• scissors and an x-acto knife• decorative supplies (I use markers and coloured pencil, it's easier to cut down on bulk that way)• a clear case fitted for your phone. I got mine from Caseology on Amazon for around $11 plus shipping.

You might also need something to cut on and additional cardstock or construction paper, and a pen or pencil.

Step 2: Cutting the Insert

I started out with placing my case on the cardstock and tracing everything with black pen. In order to make sure the paper will face the right way, place the paper with the side you want facing outward down on your surface, then place your phone case, outside down, on top, before tracing.

I used scissors to cut out the larger outline. It's okay to go a little inside the outline since you traced the outside of the case. After I cut out the case shape, I used my x-acto knife to cut out the speaker and camera areas. This part will vary on the type of phone you have.

Step 3: Trimming to Size

This part takes a little bit of time and patience. Slide the insert into the case, top first, to see how much you need to trim off on both sides. Keep the trimming on all sides even so that your holes do not end up off-center. This step can take a while. Be sure to trim off a little bit at a time, since if you cut off too much, you'll have to start over. Keep sliding the insert into your phone case to check.

Step 4: Stenciling and Templating

If you plan on creating multiple inserts so that you have different phone case designs, this will make the initial measurements much more accurate and cuts down on how much extra trimming you have to do.

Just place the cardstock cutout on another piece of cardstock or construction paper and trace it. Label the correct side with something as a reminder when you use the template.

Step 5:

Decorate your insert. This first one is a basic tribal pattern. If you are on the less artistic side, you can print out something first, glue it onto the cardstock, then do all the above steps. But if you like a little design, pull up a reference picture and go for it. For this kind of pattern, you don't need to worry about perfectly straight lines, the crookedness gives a cute look to the insert.

You can use other methods to decorate. One popular method is to use washi tape. However, for this insert, I would advise against adding thickness to the cardstock because your phone might not insert properly if it's too thick.

I used Staedtler 0.03 mm tri-plus fine liners for this.

Step 6:

Insert the cardstock into your case and make some more adjustments, then just snap it on your phone and press down to make sure all the buttons align! That's it. I also made Doctor Who inserts which I will link when I finish that instructable.